ARTICLES ABOUT BASEMENT BY DATE - PAGE 3

Combustible materials stored too close to a furnace burst into flames and caused the October rowhouse fire that claimed five lives, Baltimore fire officials said Thursday. Investigators determined that the two-alarm fire began in the basement and spread quickly through the two-story brick home, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Fire Department spokesman. The chilly evening may have prompted the family to turn on the furnace, he said. The fire struck in the early morning hours of Oct. 11 and quickly destroyed 5601 Denwood Ave., an end-of-group home in the Frankford neighborhood.

One man was rescued from the basement of his burning Edgewood home early Thursday morning. Few details were available, but a spokesman for the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association said the person was the only one home. The fire in the single-family home was reported at 5:30 a.m. in the 200 block of Kennard Avenue, according to the association's Facebook page. Firefighters from Abingdon, Joppa and Bel Air volunteer fire companies and Aberdeen Proving Ground Fire Department responded to battle the blaze, which was reported as "well-involved.

Sandbags lined the concrete atop the exterior basement stairs at St. Martin's Home in Catonsville, a symbol of the Little Sisters of the Poor's long — and losing — battle against summer heat and storms. After one heavy downpour, the sump pumps in the basement of the 200,000-square-foot brick home failed. Equipped with water vacs, the nuns, in starched white habits, mopped up the entire basement. They sandbagged the stairs to stave off another flood. They used emergency generators when the June derecho that left hundreds of thousands of Marylanders without power knocked out much of the air conditioning system.

A 36-year-old man died Sunday at the scene of a shooting in the Berea neighborhood in East Baltimore. Officers responded at 8:55 p.m. to reports of shots fired and found the man in the basement of a home in the 2700 block of Mura St., near North Lakewood Avenue. The victim, who had been shot multiple times, was pronounced dead at 9 p.m. Witnesses told investigators that two armed suspects confronted the victim and shot him during an argument. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com

A two-alarm fire gutted Ross' Crab House in Dundalk on Sunday night, according to a Baltimore County Fire Department spokesman. An employee of the family-owned restaurant in the 1100 block of North Point Road noticed smoke coming from the basement about 7:25 p.m. and alerted five other employees and about 15 customers, who all evacuated the building, said Lt. Jay Ringgold, the spokesman. A fire engine out of the Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company that happened to be nearby responded almost immediately, and firefighters entered the building and found heavy fire in the basement that was hard to reach, Ringgold said.

City police are investigating the recent murders of two men in their 60s, both in West Baltimore. In the first case, police say 61-year-old Sterling A. Parker and his wife had agreed to babysit two small children, but after watching the children for a few weeks, the Parkers were unable to reach the parents. They eventually called child protective services, which took custody of the children. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Parker was assaulted by an unidentified man on Aug. 4 in the 1900 block of Walbrook Ave. after a dispute about the children, and he died from his injuries on Aug. 20. Detectives are seeking a "person of interest," Guglielmi said.

A Cockeysville woman was charged in a July home invasion when Baltimore County police said she threatened a 74-year-old woman and dragged her down to the basement. Police said Lenny Carela, 38, broke into a home on Valley Crossing Circle, near the intersection of Padonia and Cranbrook roads, when the homeowner was out walking her dog. When the homeowner returned, she found Carela taking her purse and cell phone. The two woman got into a fight and Carela tired to choke the victim and threatened her with a knife, before dragging her to the basement, police said.

Talk about two political careers going in opposite directions. Last Sunday, I wrote about the top Sunday morning public affairs shows like "Meet the Press" falling in love with Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and booking him every chance they get. I missed the debut that day of a sorry little 30-minute piece of political propaganda called "Politics Unplugged" -- the product of former governor Bob Ehrlich and his wife, Kendel, buying time Sunday...

A Pikesville man is being held on $50,000 bond at Baltimore County Detention Center on charges that he stole two beers from the basement of a Towson bar. County Police spokeswoman Cpl. Cathy Batton said a manager of the Kent House, in the 500 block of York Road in Towson, called police at 6:48 p.m. on Monday, July 16, to report a burglary in progress. Police said the manager went to the basement and noticed the light was off, and when he got downstairs, found a man lying on the basement floor.

Greg Merson said it wasn't about the money. Really. But one million dollars isn't bad . Especially for a guy from Maryland who dropped out of college twice, a guy who threw all of his chips into professional poker only to reach the top of the sport after only a few years. Merson's win in Event 57 of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, put the promising 24-year-old in elite company. During the first hand last Friday, Merson sat at a long oval table with green felt and brown suede trim.